[{"TitleName":"EastEnders","Publisher":"Macsen Software","Author":"Towers Associates","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0001569","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 60, Mar 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-02-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Chris Jenkins, Clare Edgeley\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Mike Corr\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Lee Sullivan\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. Please write Program Printout on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted. We cannot undertake to return cassettes unless an SAE is enclosed. We pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by PRS Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1987 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"Label: Macsen\r\nAuthor: In-house\r\nPrice: £9.95\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nReviewer: Jim Douglas\r\n\r\nWhere do I begin? East-Enders is almost too awful for words.\r\n\r\nThe best way I can express it is that very little you have ever read about, ever, is as bad.\r\n\r\nThe program has been licenced by Macsen from the BBC and deserves to bomb dreadfully.\r\n\r\nI don't think there's a single redeeming feature in the whole package.\r\n\r\nLet's take a step-by-step look at what you get for your £9.95.\r\n\r\nRight. In the game, if you can call it that, you take the role of a mysterious character who inhabits Albert Square. You are apparently unemployed, owing to the decay of the country under the reign of Thatch, and spend your days helping out the lovable cockneys from Ver Skware.\r\n\r\nWhat we have here is a phenomenally ghastly mish-mash of completely dreadful mini-games. Each of the main locations in the TV show has been transmogrified into a sub-plot. All your favourites are there. You start the game in the middle of the square. Things start to look quite bad even at this early stage. Buildings are represented by large coloured squares and you are rather too big and shown side-on and in one colour.\r\n\r\nOnce you've walked to a coloured square, you will be presented by a very terrible indoor scene. If you are unlucky enough to end up in the Queen Vic your little man changes into a hand. On the screen are a row of bottles, a row of glasses and a row of pumps and a bar. It's your job to help out Wicksy. Den apparently is busy upstairs trying to administer a stomach-pump to Angie. Anyway, a customer will arrive and will order a drink. You have to get the correct glass, bottle etc and stick in some ice and lemon where necessary.\r\n\r\nNext it's off to the Fowler's house where you must either feed or rock the baby depending on it's mood.\r\n\r\nThe Launderette is a vital stopover. Collect those crazy baskets of washing before they mount up, and do something with them before going on to...\r\n\r\nThe Allotment! Yup, Arthur has had a mental breakdown and can't attend to his Dhalias. Guide those garden shears all over the place, snipping the weeds before they reach the top of the screen.\r\n\r\nOzcabs doesn't escape either. If you hear a ringing in the background, you must dash to the phone and see who wants a cab. Then you drive around the screen in a plan-view character graphic maze-style routine, pick up the little stick man and take him wherever he wants to go.\r\n\r\nFinally there is The Fruit Stall which is the worst of all. You must look after the stall in the market, stocking up on vegetables.\r\n\r\nThe graphics are simply atrocious. They're littered with attribute problems and poorly defined. The sound is terrible and gameplay is slow and quite pathetic.\r\n\r\nEven if you're a big fan of EastEnders. don't be stupid enough to buy this. It's a complete dodo.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"The naffest game release from a 'major' software house for two years. No-one should be allowed to push this on to the shelves.","Page":"28","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jim Douglas","Score":"1","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"1/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]